An approach to brand planning under high competitor set variation

We present a novel approach to enable parsimonious local brand planning in situations where a brand’s competitive set varies substantially across points of sale. We conceptualize the entire assortment of products from all the rivals at a point of sale as a unique, holistic unit of competition that vies with the focal brand for a share of the local market. We then apply a mixture-type model to consumer transactions data to explicate clusters of assortments within which a brand has similar levels of sensitivity to assortment composition and local marketing mix activities. Our results reveal substantial variation in these assortment clusters across brands within a product category. Additionally, we find large variation in the sensitivity of a brand’s share to local marketing instruments, and asymmetry in the effectiveness of these instruments in offensive versus defensive modes. We use these findings to provide guidance for parsimonious local marketing planning in situations where competitive assortments vary across points of sale.